Demonstrating the Practical Implementation of the Unmanned System Safety Precepts in an Acquisition Program - An Example using the Gladiator System

摘要

Under sponsorship by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Defense Safety Oversight Council, Acquisition and Technology Programs Task Force (DSOC ATP TF), the OSD Unmanned Systems (UMSs) Safety Guide for Department of Defense (DoD) Acquisition is due for issuance. It is intended to be a living document with the purpose to provide safety guidance to acquisition program offices developing UMSs for DoD and other federal agency applications. The guidance was formulated over a two-year period by government, industry, NASA, and academia, and presents 30 safety precepts. They form a preliminary step toward a safety standard for UMSs. Efforts are underway to establish UMS safety policy as a military handbook to ensure all UMS Programs, and unmanned variants of manned systems, consider the safety precepts when developing program and system requirements and provide evidence of compliance to or reasonable, logical deviation from the precepts at milestone and major technical reviews. This information will contribute to the safety precepts by: (1) guiding safety precept refinement, if needed; (2) developing new safety precepts, if needed; and, (3) collecting lessons-learned in using the precepts. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how compliance to or reasonable, logical deviation from these precepts can be achieved to enhance the safety of a UMS, without jeopardizing cost, performance or schedule requirements, using the Robotic Systems Joint Program Office (RSJPO) Gladiator Block 0 Contingency (GB0C) Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Program as an example.